Donald Trump has selected South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as his next Secretary of Homeland Security, CNN reported Tuesday.
In the flurry of horrific appointments for a second Trump term, that may not seem to qualify as good news—and really it doesn’t—but this appointment isn’t as bad as it might’ve been.
Noem has her issues, to be sure. She was banned from more than 16 percent of her own state after she suggested Native American tribal leaders were catering to drug cartels. She killed her chance at being Trump’s vice presidential nominee after she bragged about executing her family’s dog. She was caught lying about meeting with foreign leaders. She also didn’t appear to know that Texas wasn’t one of the 13 original colonies, during an interview on Fox News.
Noem: Texas and the 13 original colonies would have never signed the treaty that formed the first constitution of the United States if they didn't think their right to protect themselves was protected pic.twitter.com/i80SMdlcqE
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 26, 2024
Still, it could have been worse.
Trump’s former political strategist Steve Bannon floated another name for the gig last week: Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, known for parroting extremist conspiracy theories, who recently suggested that Democrats had used weather manipulation to create Hurricane Helene.